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http://www.africanews.org/central/congo-kinshasa/stories/19981231_feat2.html
Congo Rebels Target Mobutu Town
December 31, 1998
Kampala - FIGHTING has intensified in northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo
since Christmas day with the capture by Congolese rebels of Gemena town, about
600 miles north of Kinshasa. Ugandan security sources yesterday said Gemena fell
after a fierce battle last Saturday at Karawa, 50 kms away. Gemena is about 100
miles north of Gbadolite, the home town of late President Mobutu Sese Seko.
Gbadolite has an international airport actively used by Kabila and his allies to bring in troops and reinforcements. There was no independent confirmation of the claims by Ugandan security and the Congolese rebels yesterday. The sources said an estimated 1,000 Chadian contingent backing the government of Laurent Kabila refused to confront the rebels and fled west towards Libenge town located on common borders of DRC, Central Africa Republic and Congo Brazzaville. The plight of the Chadian contingent in DRC was further confirmed by a report in a London -based Newsletter, Africa Confidential of December 4 reported that half the estimated 2,000 Chadian troops backing Kabila were retreating in confusion towards the Central African Republic.
The newsletter said the contingent was entirely paid for by Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi and transport to fly them from N'djamena to Gbadolite was provided by Angola. Over 70 Chadian troops, among them two colonels, were killed in Buta and Aketi early October when their two regiments fell in an ambush of the UPDF and Congolese rebels.
Angolan and Zimbabwean fighter planes have since Monday intensified air raids on the rebels and their allies in Buta, Ango and Bondo areas. The source denied UPDF involvement in the fighting and gave credit to the Congolese Liberation Movement rebels of Jean Pierre Bemba another newly formed rebel group in the Congo.
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